Complex conflicts posing greater threats to UN peacekeepers
UNITED NATIONS —The more than 66,000 United Nations peacekeepers are confronting greater threats today because conflicts have become more complex and are driven by an increasing number of factors ranging from ethnic tensions and the impact of organized crime to illegal exploitation of resources and terrorism, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said Friday.
Jean-Pierre Lacroix said in an interview with Associated Press that even compared to two or three years ago, “most of our peacekeeping missions have a political and security environment that has deteriorated.”
In addition and “equally important,” he said, is that the conflicts are “multi-layered” and very often local and national, but also regional and global. He pointed to Africa’s impoverished Sahel region, which is seeing increasing terrorist activity, as an example.
What is causing this change in how U.N. peacekeepers have to operate are a number of factors starting with increased political divisions among the U.N.’s 193 member nations, he said.
The drivers of conflict are increasing, Lacroix said, and there are also what he called “conflict enhancers,” including digital technologies, the impact of fake news and misinformation on conflicts, and “armed groups using increasingly sophisticated means to undermine our actions.”
The U.N. currently has 12 far-flung peacekeeping operations — six in Africa, four in the Middle East, one in Europe and one in Asia — with tens of thousands of military personnel from 121 countries joined by over 7,000 international police and 14,000 civilians.
Canada mudslide: The British Columbia Coroners Service has confirmed the discovery of three more bodies near the village of Pemberton, bringing to four the number of people who died in a landslide caused by heavy rains that swept vehicles off the road.
The search continues for a fifth body, chief coroner Lisa Lapointe said in a statement Saturday.
The mudslide occurred Monday when a wave of rock and debris covered a section of the highway between Lillooet and Pemberton.
The body of a woman was recovered Monday.
Lapointe said another body was recovered Wednesday and two additional bodies were found on Thursday.
“Efforts continued Friday to locate a fifth person reported as missing, but unfortunately those attempts were unsuccessful,” she said.
Missing Chinese player: An employee of Chinese state TV has posted photos of missing tennis star Peng Shuai online in a new effort to dispel concern about her disappearance after she accused a senior leader of sexual assault.
The photos appeared Friday on Twitter, which cannot be seen by most internet users in China. The state TV employee, Shen Shiwei, wrote they were on Peng’s account on the WeChat message service with the comment, “Happy Weekend.”
The ruling Communist Party faces mounting appeals from tennis stars and the sport’s professional tour to prove Peng, a threetime Olympian and former
No. 1-ranked women’s doubles player, is safe and let her speak freely.
Meanwhile, the editor of a newspaper published by the party said Peng would “show up in public” soon.
The controversy is politically awkward as the Chinese capital prepares to hold the Winter Olympics in February. A Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Friday denied knowing about the outcry over Peng’s disappearance.
Peng, 35, hasn’t been seen in public since posting a statement on social media this month accusing Zhang Gaoli, a former member of the party’s Standing Committee, the ruling inner circle of power, of forcing her to have sex despite repeated refusals.
Biden physical exam: A day before he celebrated his 79th birthday Saturday, President Joe Biden remains “healthy” and “vigorous” and fit for duty, but is showing some signs of aging, his doctor said after the oldest president in American history underwent his first routine physical in office and — in a history-making moment — briefly transferred power to Vice President Kamala Harris while he underwent a colonoscopy.
Harris, the first woman, first Black person and first person of South Asian descent to be vice president, was — for one hour and 25 minutes — acting president while Biden was under anesthesia.
Over more than five hours Friday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the president underwent a battery of blood, physical, gastrointestinal, dental, vision and neurological examinations. Dr. Kevin O’Connor, who has been Biden’s primary care physician since 2009, wrote in a six-page memo released by the White House that Biden “remains a healthy, vigorous, 78-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency.”
The visit to the medical center in the Washington suburbs was for his first routine physical exam as president and his first since December 2019.
Palestinian remains returned: Israeli officials confirmed Saturday they successfully returned the remains of a 14-year-old Palestinian after mistakenly handing back a different corpse to the teenager’s family the previous evening. Amjad Abu Sultan was killed last month while allegedly throwing firebombs in the occupied West Bank.
About a dozen Palestinians chanting “greeting to the martyr” gathered around the body after it was handed over to the Palestinian side at an Israeli military checkpoint near the West Bank city of Bethlehem. They wrapped the remains with Palestinian flag and an ambulance carried the body away.
Friday’s error, described by the army as an “unfortunate mistake”, sharpened focus on Israel’s controversial policy of withholding remains of Palestinians killed while allegedly carrying out attacks. Israel says the policy serves as a deterrent for future attacks and leverage for prisoner exchanges, while rights groups say the action is a form of collective punishment inflicted on grieving families.
Rittenhouse access: A Fox News executive said Saturday the network did not pay Kyle Rittenhouse’s family for any special access during Rittenhouse’s murder trial or after his acquittal, after it was announced that he would speak to Tucker Carlson for an interview that is scheduled to be aired on Monday.
The comment came after Rittenhouse’s trial attorney, Mark Richards, said that a Fox documentary crew was embedded with Rittenhouse’s team against his wishes.